Present day commercially available vertebrae clamps are encumbered with shortcomings and a number of serious drawbacks. The known clamps are not always fixated effectively at the vertebra concerned in a manner which will enable the vertebra to be set to an optimally corrected position in a controlled fashion. Another shortcoming of known clamps of this kind is that it is necessary to construct the clamp in a manner which will avoid damaging the bone surface of the vertebra or its bone substance, so that the bone will not be weakened and the clamping force retained. The primary object of the invention is to provide a vertebra clamp which can be clamped swiftly and simply to a vertebra, in a fully stable fashion, without causing damage to the bone substance of the vertebra held by the clamp. A further object of the invention is to provide a clamp which can be oriented automatically on the vertebra in a manner which will enable the clamp to be included in the spine fixating instruments described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,827,918 and 5,057,109.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved with the inventive surgical clamp defined in the following claims.